Biography

British noted family, the younger of two daughters of Major Ronald Ferguson, a polo-playing pal of Prince Philip, and Susan Barrantes, who was divorced and remarried to an Argentine polo player. "Fergie," as she was nicknamed, married Prince Andrew on 7/23/1986. A commoner, she is redheaded with a bubbly personality, a Rubenesque figure and a lively past (she had two live-in lovers). It was her razor-sharp wit and unabashed outspokenness that has often got her into trouble. With Prince Andrew a pilot in the Royal Navy, she learned to fly in early 1987. After two daughters and six years of marriage, the couple separated, and divorced in 1996.

On 8/19/1992, she learned that pictures had been taken of her vacationing with financial advisor, John Bryan at Saint-Tropez in early August, bare-bosomed and kissing. Generally known as irreverent toward the royal enclave and somewhat rowdy, she attracted the disapproval of the media and the public more than once.

In debt to the sum of $7.1 million by late 1996, she rolled up her sleeves and went to work to pull her finances out of the fire. Her autobiography "My Story" netted her a reported $3.7 million, and endorsements as a spokeswoman for Weight Watchers and Ocean Spray cranberry juice another $2.5 million. On 4/15/97 her column for the NY Times made its debut. Reaching some 2000 papers around the world, she wrote about children's issues and her travels.

Her mom, Susan Barrantes, was killed instantly in a car crash in Argentina 9/19/1998, another blow for the Duchess, who had lost her friend and sister-in-law, Princess Diana, on 8/31/1997.

On March 15, 2003, her 71-year-old dad, Major Ronald Ferguson, died of a heart attack.